Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Yes, I do."

Three words, spoken incredibly quietly. She folded her arms slowly over her chest, and simply stared coolly back at the man, able ot tell he was losing it just form the scent, the sound of his blood in his veins. Senses which stirred the very thing inside of her that resembled his own words...

"I am five hundred and sixty four years old. In the natural order of things, I should be so much dust at the bottom of a six foot trench by now, or at least bones so tinder dry and fragile to move them would be fatal.

For five hundred and fourty three of those years, I have been angry. Actaully, probably more than that, but for five hundred and fourty three years, I have been angry at one thing in specific. The b*****d who passed his curse on to me, and the original b*****d who caused my kind to even exist.

For that reason, I did not Sire save once. Not until Corbin. Because I did not wish to pass that raging, viscious, undeniable and unthinking beast in the back of my head on to anyone else.

Fire is my worst enemy. I am old paper, dry and brittle, dust waiting to happen. Fire will assure it faster than anything else. So it brings the little death, fear, and its grandiose name, Rotschreck. It brings out the beast. Self preservation, cruelty, violence, and no empathy for anything or anyone else around me until it is sated.

Yes, I know what it feels like Dagoth. I've been fighting it for half a millenium. I pulled you both out of there tonight, instead of caving in to it. Do not think to preach to me, you will not like the anger you may incite."

She turned her head from Dagoth for a moment, letting him collect himself for a response, while she turned her iron gaze on Corbin instead, and offered a simple warning.

"Do not seek your answers too swiftly, or too hard. It would be better for us all if the sword remained asleep for a few days at least, while we clear up this mess."

"Are you poking around in my head? How do you have all these answers?"

Dagoth still slowly shook as he fought to keep his head from flopping to his side, the coughs had no stopped and it was clear that his body was beginning to heal and it was fatigue that gripped him now. He pulled himself up the wall legs occasionally buckling underneath him, dropping him to his knees before he would grunt and get to his feet. If she understood him, knew what he was feeling then she must know how badly it hurt and drove him crazy to be poked at. Yet here she was once again, poking at him driving at him pushing down a road he didn't understand.

Surely he couldn't argue with that towering wall of reasoning set before him.

Corbin knew all to well however that Dagoth could easily deny all logic and reason. He himself had done so more times than he could count, after all. Hell, it was precisely that which brought him to this very spot under Roan. Thus he was keenly aware that Dagoth could turn this into more of an eventful evening than it already had been. Or at least, might have if he didn't now look like a child up past his bed time.

Rage however did funny things with already established limitations of the body.

Sighing though the cigarette with a plume of smoke he had noted Roan's candid gesture and was in the midst of raising his hand, about to flick the remaining half of his smoke to her. She then brought fresh blood to air.

All at once the Fledgling was stimulated, an intoxicating high rushing through his body like a sudden kick of adrenaline. He however, wasn't so exhausted as Dagoth, and could reign in the beast. That urge to do what Roan showed she was cautious of him doing.

Instead however, he groaned, shifting back onto his left knee, trying to focus on the restoration of his skin, rather than the pull in his own blood, at the sight and smell Of Roan's.

"That entirely depends on you. Slaves are mere human animals. Yes, I could do that to you. Easily, in fact. I'm very very good at mind games.

A man is never a slave however so long as his mind if free. You look at Corbin. A good choice. He has not just ingested my vitae, his very being runs on it now. My blood in his veins, powering his body, giving him my traits. Technically, he is subservient to me. There is a bond of blood which cannot be denied. But you have already seen he does not exactly obey me in all things, and has his own mind. No doubt you will live long enough to witness many blazing arguments between us, gods alone knows he's stubborn and young and arrogant to a point."

She rested her other hand over Dagoth's, where he held her just above the wrist.

"You are whatever you steel yourself TO be, Dagoth. After all... I DID teach you everything is a test. Life itself is merely a reminder of that. It's never fair, and it is always, ALWAYS, testing."

She;d caught the slight noise from Corbin, the tiny flare in his nostrils, the slight change to the depths of the eyes. A mental reminder was made to have vitae sent to his rooms the moment she was done here. it would have to wait however, as Dagoth was once more hanging by a thread, fate waiting to either play the rope out even more, or finally cut the string. She sensed now was a critical moment, one of many knife edges she had been on through the years. And she would see it through, for better or worse.

Dagoth looked at her for what felt to him like a life time, he couldn't understand her or what she was trying to do before he had people use him for his own needs or just had him around because he was there. Yet he sensed she was giving him a place and position of purpose, Dagoth furrowed his brow and looked towards Corbin. It was true that he had choice and wasn't bound on a leash but he knew how powerful their blood could be, how good it felt to filled with their essence.

"Once more into the breech dear friends"

Dagoth moved Roan's wrist slightly upwards and began to bow towards the open wound, he gulped softly before placing his lips to flowing blood. The smell alone was enough to bring a massive high to the pirate but the actual contact of her blood, nothing had prepared him for how strong or how good he felt. Lightning shot through his mouth and down to his toes, every part of him buzzed at once as the euphoria filled him. He could almost feel every broken cell in his body begin to knit together and then erupt with joy. A few mouth fulls later he pulled back looking at Roan dead in the eye.

"Now what?"

From where he stood on the balcony, Nines could hear snippets of the conversation below. Dag's outburst, for one, brought a slow shaking of his head about.

Originally he had been investigating the sudden rumbling he had noted from his quarters, partnered with the sounds of commotion from the main hall. Upon reaching the balcony the stink of gunpowder and charred flesh were hanging upon the air; pungent as can be. Something was up, but from what he was hearing, the excitement was already over.

So he quietly withdrew back to his quarters, to wait until debriefing.

"...someone lit it on fire. Don't ask."

Turning as Will appeared, Roan sighed softly, but the noises behind the door were diminishing, and rapidly. It didn't stop her answering Will's second statement however.

"Shoot me, and you won't like the outcome. I have something more effective anyway."

A slight tremor passed down her left arm, a sign she was tired and hungry and kind of hoping 'dismissed' was going to work.

Waiting until the menfolk had dispersed after her terse dismissal, Roan leant against the door and waited a little bit more.

Sure enough, a few moments after silence had descended, Jan appeared. He wore a backpack, but had both hands free, and moved forwards cautiously towards his mistress.

A slight inclination of her head was all he needed, and he stepped forwards swiftly to catch her as she slumped off the wall, supporting her weight by putting one arm over his shoulders. The Lady would never EVER submit to being carried if she could help it, after all.

No words were exchanged as they took the lift up to her rooms, and the butler cut the remaining clothing off her, averting his eyes from the raw, platelet filled mess of her skin as he detached charred clothing from healing flesh with accompanying unpleasant sounds.
It was not salve that was rubbed into these raw and painful wounds, but instead a thick coating of vitae simply poured over while she stood in the bath, sparing her carpets at least. Twice as much again was ingested directly by the lady through grit teeth.

After, her skin started to reknit itself a lot quicker, raw wound becoming pink scar, fading down into white traceries of old wounds within a half hour. And then she spoke.

"Does my back look healed enough?"
"It is not quite complete my lady, but I fear much greater damage to your hands, which are currently looking whole."
"Alright. I'm ready then. You have the necessary items?"
"Yes, Lady Roan. I am ready when you are."

Nodding, Roan sat down on the bed and laid her hands on her knees, palms up and fingers open. She was trembling still, not because of physical weariness, but instead a weariness of the mind, where she and Také both were struggling to hold back a pain that could not be denied forever.
With a single, internal command to her symbiote to rest... the wall was knocked aside and the hidden wound was finally allowed to surface fully.


She screamed. Searing heat ripped through her palms, splitting them open like earthquake fissures, the lines in black and orange ripping upwards from the initial gashes across her palms, and up her arms, curving over her shoulders to finally peter out along her back.
Milliseconds later, blood spurted from the wounds as cells died on either side, and turned acrid black. At the same time, Jan thumped a syringe into her neck, and depressed the plunger. Veins stood out along her throat and temples as whatever the drug concoction was that he pumped her with took effect, growing more so as he slapped another syringe worth into her inner right thigh.

The Lady's pupils dilated so fast the world swam, and with a dozy smile, she tumbled backwards, and passed out.
Only then did Jan pull the rest of the items out of his backpack, and start stitching wounds shut manually, using bandages and swabs like there was no tomorrow.

Eventually, she slept for 5 hours. A lot for her. When she woke, she had a headache like Donkey Kong throwing barrels at the back of her eyes, her mouth felt like a gorilla had indeed moved in, and everything ached and creaked when she moved.
Groggily picking up the phone, it was NOT Jan she called.

"You. Get me fresh vitae from the kitchen, heat it up until it's steaming, and bring it up here. And bring me the smokes out of the top drawer of the desk in the Jubilee suite. Its two doors down the hall from you."

she hung up without waiting for an answer, and started to dress.